Graduate unemployment is a growing global concern. In 2019, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that more than 73 million youth aged 15–24 were unemployed, the majority of them being student graduates from higher education institutions (HEIs). With a projected population increase of 10 billion by 2050, Africa will constitute 1.4 billion people, the majority of them being young people under the age of 25. Most graduates in developing countries such as Kenya fall under this age group, thus raising concern about their ability to join gainful employment or become self-reliant after graduation. With an average unemployment rate of 7.6% in 2020, The World Bank lists the skills gap between market requirements and the current curriculum provision as an impediment to Kenya's socio-economic agenda. This finding motivates more emphasis for higher education institutions to re-think their approaches in training and skilling. As such, the need for service-learning (SL) as a complementary pedagogy to enhance skills sets among graduates is necessary.
TopIntroduction
The role of universities in nurturing the service-learning ecosystem is crucial in developing competitive graduates, self-efficacy, and intentions of graduates. Universities can promote a service-based learning ecosystem by realigning their core mandates of the curriculum to contribute to research and knowledge dissemination among communities and firms. The labor market in Kenya is faced with a myriad of problems that require the apex institutions to provide solutions. Youth unemployment is one of the major challenges of our times that universities can address. Youth unemployment accounts for 60% of jobless in Africa, thus raising the concern of the need to examine ways and strategies to reduce unemployment especially among the youth (World Bank Group, 2020). Universities can address this challenge by developing a service-learning ecosystem that not only improves graduate employability but also creates entrepreneurs who in turn create jobs. However, efforts to develop a service-learning ecosystem require collaboration from different stakeholders where universities should take up the leading role.
The contribution of universities in developing a service-learning ecosystem is crucial. Universities play an important role in providing service-learning (SL) and setting the appropriate learning context. This will enhance the Self-Efficacy (SE) of learners by inspiring their willingness to venture into communities and firms, identifying and seizing opportunities within the entire labor market and economy. It is necessary to design and package the right SL pedagogy that is in tandem with high labor market needs. The appropriate training methods would result in producing graduates with high belief in their ability to venture and prosper, thus would address unemployment, lead to more job opportunities, support livelihoods, deter engagement in social ills, and lead to economic growth and improved standard of living. However, universities in Kenya are yet to embrace this approach, and there is no comprehensive framework for service learning, hence the need to develop synergy among the various stakeholders that interact with higher education institutions. A service-learning ecosystem has been adopted by many countries as a panacea in strategy in building the practice experience among learners. Service-learning is now recognized as an established field of study, and some international, regional, national, and local actors are taking part in it. It is considered to have the ability to harness early learners’ aspirations and to equip them with practical skills (Setiawan, 2014).
It should be noted that there has been rapid university expansion in Kenya, mainly through the conversion of colleges into universities. This has impacted the curriculum delivered because although the government wishes to train more science and technology graduates, in practice the biggest growth in public universities has been in arts, humanities, and social science degrees (and most public universities offer the same range) (Hall, 2017). Both students and employers feel that universities are not preparing students with employability skills (Mukhwana, Oure, Too, and Some, 2016). Federation of Kenya Employers (2018) noted that some students aspire to be self-employed and that there were few opportunities within existing degree courses to develop business start-up skills or to access internships in the blue-collar and informal sectors, in addition to the mismatch between training and labor market needs.
51% of companies surveyed by the Federation of Kenya Employers in 2018 felt that most graduates don’t have the right competencies to perform on jobs without gaining further experience or training, thus contributing to graduate unemployment in Kenya. Graduates were found to be enrolled in low-skilled positions such as watchmen, messengers, drivers, and clerical officers (replacing those qualified with diplomas or certificates). Federation of Kenya Employers
(2018a) shares that inadequate training of college graduates has led to the displacement of college-educated young people from roles they might have occupied and to concerns about over qualification, underemployment, and skills mismatching.